Testimony underway in sexual assault trial for military police officer

Testimony began Thursday in the court-martial of an Air Force Academy military police officer accused of sexually assaulting a female airman at the base.

Senior Airman Aaron Stubbs, assigned to the academy's 10th Security Forces Squadron, is charged with two counts of sexual assault stemming from a Dec. 23 incident in which prosecutors allege that he forcibly removed the pants of a female airman at her on-base house and touched her genital area with his.

During testimony on Thursday, Stubbs' accuser said that Stubbs smacked her buttocks during a party shortly before the alleged assault.

The two were friends. She blamed the behavior on the fact that Stubbs had been drinking and chose not to say anything to him about the incident, she testified.

"I didn't really pay it any mind," said the accuser, who testified that she had not been drinking that night.

The woman left the party after a fight with her boyfriend. Once at home, Stubbs texted her to see how she was doing. She called him, and he told her he was coming over to her house. She told him not to, but he came anyway, she testified.

After letting him into her house, he kissed her and attempted to take her pants off. she said.

"He was like, 'Do you trust me? Then don't move,'" she said.

She "lightly" pushed him away and told him to stop before escaping him and proceeding to her living room, she said.

"I would have thought he got the picture, like nothing is going to happen," she said.

Stubbs again approached her and began pulling her pants down. He touched her genital area before he gave in to her tearful pleas to stop, she said.

The accuser also testified that, after Stubbs left, she left her young sons, who were asleep in the house at the time, home alone so she could tell her boyfriend about the incident in person.

During cross-examination, a defense lawyer pointed out inconsistencies between the accuser's Thursday testimony, statements she made in a meeting with defense lawyers this week, statements she made at a hearing in April and statements she made to the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations.

The woman testified Thursday that the second time Stubbs pulled her pants down, he pulled them down to thigh level. But she previously testified that Stubbs pulled her pants down to her knees that time, a defense lawyer said.

The court-martial before a seven-member panel of airmen is scheduled to resume Friday.